Linus yale



UNITED sTATEs M .TENT onnion.

LINUS YALE, JR., OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

LOCK.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 32,331, dated May 14, 1861; IEteissued` April 28, 1863, No. 1,469.

T o all 'whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, LINUS YALE, Jr., of the city and county of Philadelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and Improved Method of Constructing Locks for Banks and other Purposes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a fulll and eXact description of the same, ref erence being had to the annexed sheet of drawings.

The nature of my invention consists in making such an `arrangement of parts asto render unavailing any attempts to ascertain the differences between or position of the tumblers levers or stops.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The same letters refer to the same parts in all the figures of the drawings.

Figure l, is a plan of the lock with the cover removed: the parts are represented in the locked position.

A. is the case; B. the bolt; C. the talonplate attached to the bolt, and by which it is shot back and forth.

D. is a geared wheel carrying with it the ratchet wheel E. and the pin c also shown in section Fig. 6. This wheel D. is actuated by the key or driving wheel F. which is pierced through its center for the keyhole f to receive the pod O. and square part of n, of the key shank N. Fig. 2. The pod O. passes completely through thekey wheel F.- into a chamber immediately behind it in the case where it remains stationary, while the handle is being revolved and through it the key or driving wheel F. The pod O. is

jointed to the handle by means of a swivel pin in the ordinary swivel key manner.

Gr. is the draw-down-plate which receives vertical motion from thepin e2 working in the curvilinear talon notch made for that purpose as indicated by the dotted lines un der the wheel D. This draw down plate has a hardenedpunch g attached to its lower end which when the plate is elevated enters the key pod O. and drives the frame of bits P. Fig. 3 out and carries them up against the ends of the primary tumblers (or key tumblers) vI Fig. 5. (and also in dicated by dotted lines in plan Fig. l as being behind the parts L. Gr. D. and E.) thereby raising the said tumblers to different heights according to the varying lengths `pressed together. position the shot out` position of the bolt of the key bits. The piston g passes fully across the `key chamber before the tumblers are raised to their full height, thereby clossitions, by what is known as the tentative method of picking. This draw down plate has also attached to the under side of its ,ups per end as indicated by dotted lines marked g a projection or hook for the purpose in its downward movement of pulling or drawing down the tumblers I. to their normal position, which movement also pushes down the frame and bits ofthe key into the pod O. ready to be withdrawn with the handle Y.

The primary tumblers have onlya vertical noIvement lying in guides in the case of the oc r. tially shown in place and one fully show'n in Fig. 4. They work vertically in suitable guides in the bolt and are also moved back and forth with the bolt. In -their unlocked position the tenons of the secondary tumblers are embraced in the recesses of the primary tumblers as usual in all permutation locks and thus both are raised and de- But when in the` locked separates them and holds the secondary tumblers out of reach of the primary ones, in the relative positions indicated in the plan and also in Figs. t and 5. The ends of the tenons opposing themselves to some parts of the edges of the tumblers I. These ends cannot however be brought into actual contact for the purpose of feeling out their positions, until the draw down plate is lifted to its fullest height, when the key hole is' crossed by the punch g and the access to the tumblers cut off thereby completely, as above described. The secondary tumblers in their locked position are anchored in their positions by the stationary knife edge K. entering some one of the` notches (see H. Fig. 4). which are eut relatively to suit the various lengths of the bits of the key.

All the parts above described are well known and some of them secured to me by The secondary `tumblers H. `are par patent of May 6th 1851 and June 12th 1860. But the following device is added for a protection against a process applicable to nearly all kinds of locks by which they can be securely and easily picked.

It is impossibleto construct tumblers or A stops so exactly alike in width as that. there shall be absolutely no variation. Therefore by the application of an index which shall multiply a few thousand times those minute differences become discernible and palpable and will enable a skilled manipulator to tell which tumbler takes the most strain and thereby also enable him to adjust it and afterward by the same process the remaining ones, to a position to take the stumpor fence tumblers as the case may be.

E. Figs. 1 and 6 is a ratchet wheel made fast to a revolving crank pin in the wheel D. which pin is made in twoparts e and e2 secured together and 'fast to the ratchet E.

The pin e is, on its upper end, shouldered down about one tenth of an inchwhereby I am enabled to make it about one sixteenth of an inch smaller and that much eccentric without rover reaching the concentric part. (See e Fig. 1.)

M. Fig. 1 is an arm inserted in the top of a post of the case which holds it in position to turn the ratchet by means of its little pawl or click, whenever the wheel D. revolves to the right carrying the ratchet with it. The ratchet wheel is held in the position that contact with M. has placed it by another stationary pawl or catch l Figs. 1 and 6. Thus it` is seen that at every movement toward unlocking, the ratchet, and of course the crank pin e with its eccentric top e is revolved more or less according to the amount of motion given to D.

The talon plate C. has on its rightl hand craw or corner a little spot wasted away so that the eccentric part of the pin e must strike first but when the motion thereby communicated is nearly completed the concentric part strikes the unclipped part and nishes the movement as perfectly as though the whole pin were concentric, and the shoulder or craw plump and full. Thus as the eccentric pin head strikes each time avdifferent side it allows the wheel D and therefore the driving wheelF to rotate to a different point each time by which means the index which may be attached to the lock would so .vary as to utterly confuse the operator and negative all attempts to detect the positions. p

To unlock. Insert the key. Turn the handle to the left and it communicates motion to the wheel F through that to the wheel D. and through both by means of the lower end of the crank pin e2 to the draw down plate G. which it elevates thereby similarly elevating the punch g which Vdrives the bits P out of the pod O. and up against the ends of the primary tumblers I until the frame and bits are completely within the guides of the primary tumblers and the punch has followed them sufhciently to close up all access to them and has thereby fully imprinted the form of the key upon said tumblers. Then the pin e with its eccentric top has reached the talon and started the bolt backward in its movement also carrying the fence or secondary tumblers into the embrace of the gating in the primary ones and relieved them from the anchorage on theknife edge K so that when the motion of the bolt backward is completed and the primaries have complete possession of the secondaries the crank pin e2 again engages in the drawdown plate Gr. and through it restores both the primary and secondary tumblers and also the key bits to their iirst position. The withdrawing of the key handle discovers the key bits in the pod O. as when the key was inserted. To lock. Insert the key again. Turn it to the right and the reverse movement will be given to the wheels and bolt but a precisely similar one to the drawdownl plate and punch by whose means the key bits are again elevated and impressed on the tumblers and fence tumblers when the forward movement of the bolt carries Athe latter to their anchorage on vthe fence-knife edge K and when the crank pin e has completed that duty and left the talon plate C. the lower end of it engages' again in the drawdown plate to again move it, and its ratchet wheel E is revolved partially by catching on the finger of the arm M. bringing a different side of the eccentric in position to bear first when it is again used.

This peculiar arrangement of parts may be applied to almost any form of lock, or its equivalent to this form in a different manner to eifect substantially the same object z'. e. a varying indication of the movements when an attempt is made to ascertain its positions by index. This arbitrary varying of distances may be put between other parts with precisely the same results.

Having thus described the nature and purpose of this my invention. what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent The application to locks of the parts E. e. e2. el. and M or their equivalents for the purpose and object substantially as described.

LINUS YALE, JR. 

